Dear Parents,

Welcome to the new academic year! It has been great to see the children again and also to welcome new families into our school community. The Reception children have settled in so well and with Mrs Leen absent for a couple of days, it has been a pleasure to teach them and get to the know them so quickly. The Year 6 children are being such attentive, caring and responsible buddies and I am proud of all of them.

It has been a busy Summer holiday with much work in school taking place. I would like to thank my dad for decorating the front entrance of school; it has made such a difference.

The parents and governors who helped tidy the school grounds on Bank Holiday Monday made the grounds much tidier and user friendly for the children. Mrs Dickson kindly organised a skip at no cost from R Collard Skip Hire which allowed us to clear both inside and outside of school. I would like to thank Adam Vanstone and Helen Gan for spending so much time with me tidying, moving, fixing, installing various things in school; it has been great to start the year with so much achieved. As you will see in the photos we now have beautiful class names on the doors. These have been made and framed by Beth Peat. Everyone has been commenting on how wonderful they are. We are incredibly grateful for your time and contribution to our school.

As you will have seen the garden at the front of school has been cleared; the area had become unsafe and I am pleased with the work carried out. I am working hard to decide on the best way to develop the front area and if any parents have expertise in this area I would be pleased to gain more professional advice.

Twenty children attended the NSSport Inset day on Monday and it was great to have so many families benefiting from the provision and so much fun had by the children. During the day the staff worked together focusing on our priorities in the year ahead as well as areas on our current School Development Plan. It was a pleasure to welcome Kate Guillaume to the staff and I am pleased that so many of you have already had the opportunity to meet her. The Information Evening was very well attended and I hope you found it useful.

Next week clubs will resume; Multisports clubs need to be booked via the NSSport website.   We are looking forward to Chaffinch attending Warren Lodge which will also begin on Monday.  Mrs Robinson has made the decision to stop running the French Club. Please let me know if you are keen for the school to find another provider. I would like to thank Mrs Robinson for the commitment and hard work over the past few years.

I wish you all a relaxing weekend and look forward to seeing you next week.

Kind regards

Jacquie Vanstone